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The OFFICIAL thread for SAT takers who are not native English speakers

This thread is for to help students who are struggling with the SAT due to their English level (which I'm one of them). If you're are frustrated with the CR and the writing section because you don't have many advantage as the native English speakers, you are welcome to discuss your situation. The native speakers are also welcome in this thread. Especially, if you can give some piece of advice of us, you're appreciated to do so.

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So here's my situation. I've been in this country for about 5 years, and my English is keep getting better. In school, I've taken a lot of advanced courses (honors and APs), and my GPA is something like 3.99 UW. However, I just noticed the SAT is one of my problem. I took a practice SAT that was hosted by Sylvan three weeks ago, and I've got 490 on the CR, and 570 on the writing (54 on the MC, and 9 on the essay). I took the real deal yesterday, but I'm not sure I've done any better in the reading and writing sections. This summer, I'll be studying hard to retake it in October, but I'm not sure going through the Blue Book is the most effective and the only way to study. So, if you can give piece of advice to improve my scores to me, that would be really appreciated. Thanks!

Replies to: The OFFICIAL thread for SAT takers who are not native English speakers

hey im indian and i dont live in the united states..
CR is a big problem for me too..
i had my first attempt at the SAT in jan 06..
i got a 640 on the CR,710 on the Writing(11 on the essay) and 680 on the math..

northwestlover, just curious, where are you from? I'm from Taiwan & I'm pretty much in the same situation, except I've only been here for a year. I'm planning on studying over the summer and retake it. I hope it would get better:)

I moved here from Japan when I was 12. I came here without almost any English practice, so first few years were tough. Yeah, this summer sounds like a study season for me, and I'm not looking forward to it because I'm week to a hot weather:( I know I should've done this earlier since I've been here for 5 years already, but it just didn't happen... Oh well, the SAT is not everything, at least.

Well, to me it depends upon the type of books you read and the speed that you read with. With a wide enough reading pattern, the second thing is to do as many tests as possible (PR, Barrons, CB etc.)
I'm really not qualified to give advice re: CR as its v. easy for me, although I'm an Int'l (perhaps a reason for that is that I've been studying in an English medium all my life), but these are the two things I can think of that, at least in my view, have the most positive effect upon your score.

I was bornt in China, but educated in Singapore. Does that count? Heh. I suggest you study the vocab given by the PR hit list. Like 10 of them came out in May. When you are doing the blue book, also take down all the vocab you don't know. Do corrections for your tests. And the Barron's SAT II Writing is quite good prep. I also read up with some grammar books. About tenses, misplaced modifiers, etc.

hey i was born in china and only came to US in 2004 with almost now english skills...
but Hello!...makeover~~~(imitating that identity theft commercial>>>)
last SAT i got 2240 (CR 800 Math 740 Wr 700) and this time im aiming for a 2400.
all the improvements came from extensive reading. and thats it!!!!

Thanks you guys! And wow, it seems like a lot of people are doing really good on the SAT without having English as their first language. That makes me feel like my problem is something beyond my English level:(

But then again, hearing that you guys also studies a lot, I feel optimistic about this too because this sounds like something that I can improve. So I'm going to keep working on it over the summer, and I'll definately look for some vocabs as you guys noted.

And again, thanks for the pieces of advices you guys gave, and I'd appreciate more.
-NorthWestLover

P.S. What "vocab list" should I get? I have a list of 1000 common SAT vocab words, but is this enough? Also, how did you study those vocabs? Is flashcard a good idea?

regurgitatingcow- wow very impressive to see that you got a 800 CR when you only moved to the US only 2 years ago and spoke no english. I am actually in the same position as you but my CR is only a 570. I need to pull it up to a 700. I have devoted this summer to reading classical novels and new yorker. Can you tell me how much you read and what books you read so I can do the same and see if it works for me? thanks.

hey...im indian....living in INDia. I recently took the SAt and i felt that MAth was extremely easy....but CR was kinda tough...especially the vocab...!! What do u guys do to grasp the vocab??? study the entire list of words??? i have the same questions as north westlover..

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